The Mobility, Logistics and Automotive Technology Research Centre (MOBI) is nested at the Vrije Universiteit Brussel (VUB) and is a leader in electro-mobility, sustainable mobility and logistics research. It develops electric and hybrid vehicles technologies, and evaluates new concepts in mobility and logistics on their sustainability. MOBI aims at a better and safer mobility of people and goods, to reduce congestion and environmental impacts in urban and inter-urban areas, and to improve operational efficiency. Its multidisciplinary team of close to 100 specialists enables a holistic approach. Over the past 5 years the group participated in 27 EU projects, 40 projects with the industry and 78 projects funded by national organizations.
From a technological perspective, the center has a leading position in electromobility, thanks to its experience of over 40 years in alternative fuels, electric, hybrid and fuel cell vehicles R&D. The center possesses state-of-the-art infrastructure and models for the testing, development and design of components – batteries, supercapacitors, power converters -, vehicle powertrains, and inductive and conductive charging infrastructure. Simulation techniques have been developed to define energy-efficient, energy estimation and low-emission power control strategies in hybrid propulsion systems. It also offers a co-design optimization platform (incl. component sizing and control systems) for light-duty vehicles and for heavy-duty vehicles. In addition, it offers a unique Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) methodology for the entire automotive sector to analyze the environmental, economic and societal impacts caused by the development and implementation of new vehicle technologies, components, materials and policy measures. VUB is a cost modelling expert, that can build upon past research efforts and databases for the evaluation with an economic assessment using a Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) analysis methodology.
Located in Brussel, Belgium
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VUB is contributing in the definition of model’s specifications and model scalability that will be considered in the development of the LONGRUN simulation. VUB will contributes in other tasks focusing on definition of the models’ interfaces of the e-drive system including battery, inverters, thermal cooling of battery, and its targeted models’ scalability to cover different vehicle drivetrains. VUB will contribute in the LONGRUN simulation, especially in definition of the SIL platform and its I/O requirements for the vehicle powertrain and in adapting the collected models with optimized interfaces and scalability, especially the e-drive system. VUB also contributes in the definition of the LCA indicators, WTT and TTW, and based on the available data and also focusing on upgrading the interfaces of the e-drive and battery systems for the VECTO tool. VUB will support in defining the test procedure and validating the e-drive system’s interfaces. In addition, VUB will contributes in multilevel energy management strategies. VUB will contribute especially on Charging System Management using Vehicle-to-Cloud Connectivity and on selection of charger systems.